So I took a bit over a week for the update this time, I'm sorry! I have so much makeup work from being that sick. It's pretty icky. But, that's how it goes and goes, and all is well now. Thankyou so much for your heart-warming condolences. Suffice to say that they were chicken noodles for my soupy soul... Or something like that. :)

I don't have too much to say about this chapter, except it's another long scene of dialogue between Kyou and Yuki. I think Kyou gets more involved in holding conversations than Yuki ever did, mostly because Yuki isolates himself and becomes introverted. Kyou sort of needs to talk more. He's so expressive... But here I go making all sorts of strange character assumptions! I'm helplessly dorky! Ah, well. Cheers for another chapter. Tell me your thoughts! Ta!

Rating: Pg-13. Slash - sensuality - violence - light incest.
Category: Angst/Romance
Pairing: Kyou/Yuki
Length: 11?

Ache
by Lanie Kay-Aleese

Chapter Eleven: The End of the World

- - - -

Kyou slid a beige towel off the rack and pressed it against his face. He took a deep breath into the scratchy fabric, then, still with his face partially covered by the towel, sent a narrow glare at his cousin, hunched over at the sink.

"You damn rat," Kyou growled, "Why the hell did you hafta come in?"

"...There wasn't any steam," Yuki replied, then blinked, then wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "...How was I supposed to know that you were in here... taking a shower?"

Yuki was in a mussed-up striped shirt and dark green boxers, facing away. Kyou could see Yuki in the mirror, though, with his head bent down into the sink. The faucet was open and he occupied his hands with holding back his hair and splashing water onto his face. It must have been cool, because the rat let out some sort of shudder.

Kyou hissed.

"Well, for one thing, you should've known that someone was in here 'cuz the door was locked."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yeah, it was. Why would I take a shower without locking the door?"

"Why would you take a shower in the middle of the night?" Yuki returned.

"At least I don't skip baths!"

"I don't have odor problems."

"Argh! Shut up you damned rat!" Kyou shouted, furiously setting the towel to work on his orange hair. Yuki chimed in a "stupid cat" in reply, before bumblingly returning to wash his face. Who knew why the hell he would feel like he needed to do that, right now, wondered Kyou. He wasirritating, just his simple presenceand his quiet splashes. He was making a lot of quiet noise. Distracting Kyou, who didn't want to see him. And instinctually, Kyou felt the urge welling up inside of him, to yell at the rat, but he just didn't have the energy or the stomach to pretend that things were normal. So instead, Kyou did no thing. He sighed, and he ruffled a hand through his dampened hair; he withdrew his hand to find that the strands had given up tears onto his fingers.

He was so tired of this weird behavior between them.

He breathed heavily, with a small cough that originated from someplace near his heart.

"Hey. Rat. I want to know what happened."

Yuki looked up suddenly, water dripping from the tip of his chin and gathered in his eyelashes.

"...What?" he asked, a faint yawn heavy inbetween his breaths.

"You know what I mean. That thing - that I did - that made everything like this-" Kyou waved his arms, "- I want to know what I did that was so wrong. I - I don't feel guilty about it. But it must have been pretty bad, right?"

Yuki stared back at him with softer eyes than Kyou could imagine.

"I can't tell you," he replied. "About what happened."

"Oh c'mon. Tell me. You don't have to do something stupid like sparing my feelings, I can take it."

Yuki simply kept his fastened on Kyou's. When his voice came out, there was an unfamiliar tone in his voice that Kyou couldn't understand.

"No, Kyou... I can't tell you."

"I get it. Maybe you're not allowed to say anything, but that's just-"

Yuki interrupted. "- Is it really that hard to put two and two together? You really are stupid, aren't you?"

Kyou stopped. "I'm not stupid!" he responded, thickly. Something terrible clicked inside of his mind. If Yuki couldn't give an explanation... Was it possible... that he didn't have one?

"You can't tell me... because you don't remember, do you?"

Yuki's silence confirmed it, and Kyou visibly flinched when the goosebumps raised across his arms, chest, and shoulders.

"How the hell... You don't... You don't remember any of it? But - but you're the rat, you're supposed to be special or something! They're supposed to - I mean - They wouldn't actually - not to YOU -"

The corner of Yuki's mouth lifted, and Kyou found himself reminded of that strange memory, when Yuki had looked up from kissing his chest and his eyes promised more. It was the same half-smile.

Kyou felt his heart speed up.

"I don't remember why my memory was erased. But I remember when it happened," said Yuki, now looking away. "There was a flash of red light. Then, something grabbed ahold of me and shook me like the end of the world."

Yuki rubbed his hands over his forearms at this, and Kyou watched, keenly aware that his cousin had shivered. His hair, usually such a bright violet or purple or whatever that color was, it seemed muted in the luminous bathroom light. It was almost a grey color. And his eyes looked different, too; not soft anymore; they were somehow missing the emotions that appeared when Yuki wrinkled the edges of his eyes.

Kyou swallowed once. His adam's apple bobbed for a moment and somehow, it emphasized the dry scraping that he felt deep in his throat. He flicked his tongue over his lips. His mouth felt and tasted like cotton. And Yuki's coloring was desaturated, half-alive in bitter memory.

Kyou coughed to cover his discomfort.

"The end of the world, huh?" he said at last. Yuki looked up, suspicious; and he caught Yuki's eyes. Then, he smirked- it was almost a mocking expression, except playful. Harmless. Kyou could see those feelings reflected in the bathroom mirror. He could see his hair mussed up in all directions.

For a moment, he could see Yuki, with his dark hair sopping wet and slipping over his eyes, sticking to the slick edges of his face---

The shower water, pounding, pounding, drowning out the sound of their---

'Not now,' Kyou bit down upon his lip, and he dug his fingernails into his palms, 'Not now. Not now.'

"I don't know if the rest will come back. You know, regressive amnesia -- it tends to come back. But there's something different about haivng an electric shock procedure. You heard of those?"

Kyou shook his head, weakly.

Yuki continued, bending down his head in a near-conspirational manner, "Electroshock treatments were an old technique used to treat people who had psychosis. It was also rumoured to treat depression and other... illnesses. But a lot of people who didn't need the treatment received electroshock and it took away parts of their memories. They never got those memories back. I don't know if my theory is right about this, but... I wonder if Hatori's ability... is somehow similar to electrical shocks? It would explain why none of our memories have been coming back."

"That's not true," Kyou cut in, "I've - I've remembered some things. Nothing important. Just stuff like not being able to sleep and taking a shower. And some emotions, I think. But I'm remembering... more."

"You're lucky," Yuki whispered. Kyou barely heard it at all, and his eyes widened, full of incredulity.

"I've never been lucky. It's not the fate of the cat."

At the word Cat, Yuki's head snapped up. He took in a quick breath, and spoke quickly as he exhaled, "Do you remember anything that Akito would want you to forget?"

Kyou scowled and placed his hands on his hips.

"Come on! Akito only has people's memories erased if they find out about the curse. We're already cursed, so we know... about it..." A cough rose up to his throat, "... But we don't know... why we're cursed. That - do you think that's why our memories were erased?"

Yuki's eyes flashed dangerously. "No, that wouldn't make sense.Why would Akito want us to forget about knowing the true nature of our curse? Shigure knows, and he hasn't had his memory erased."

The rat leaned his back against the wall, kicking up his heels to hold himself. "And, besides, if it was just a single discovery... We wouldn't have lost so much memory, right?"

"Yeah. Probably," said Kyou, looking away; distracted.

The water shower, drowning out the sound of a breathless moan. "Kyou, I need you."---

He shuddered in return and wrapped his slick arms around Yuki's thin form. "Shh. I know."---

Kyou felt his leg twitch.

He barely knew what he was doing before he had walked out of the room, clad only in a towel. His cousin had called "Where...?" out behind him, but now he was in the hallway and out of sight, out of mind. Out of...

The hallway loomed around Kyou, stiff and detached and ungiving. He moved as if propelled by a motor, as if he had six cylinders and four of them were defunct from the manufacturer. He didn't bother to put on any clothes, simply crawling into bed. As Kyou placed his head on his pillow, he retraced the panels of wall and ceiling and the shadows that interrupted their edges. He closed his eyes. Sleep didn't come in spite of him. His hair still damp, the calluses on his feet still soft and stretched, he tried so hard not to think that he couldn't help himself from thinking.

Thinking that his memories couldn't be real. And there was no way that Yuki would have had his memories erased. Akito would never let that happen to his precious rat. Kyou swallowed hard as he let the thoughts tumble inside of him. He had to be out of his mind. Even so, he considered - less sarcastically - about what Yuki had said.

The end of the world?

Kyou felt himself shaking.

- - - -

The 1337 Hax0r (10:36 PM):
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